Fake antivirus scams rake in $150m

FBI warns consumers of 2009's worst scams

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says fake antivirus programs have raked in more than $150 million for scammers.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a warning on Friday, saying that web surfers should be wary of sudden pop-up windows that report security problems on their computers.

This software can appear almost anywhere on the web. Typically, the scam starts with an aggressive pop-up advertisement that looks like some sort of virus scan. Often it's nearly impossible to get rid of the pop-up windows. Of course, the scan turns up problems, and the pop-up windows say the only way to get rid of them is to pull out a credit card and pay.

This is always a bad idea. At best, the software is subpar. At worst, it "could result in viruses, Trojans and/or keyloggers being installed on the user's computer", the IC3 said in its warning. The IC3 is run in partnership with the National White Collar Crime Center.

"The assertive tactics of the scareware [have] caused significant losses to users," the IC3 said. "The FBI is aware of an estimated loss to victims in excess of $150 million."

Scareware peddlers have pushed their ads on legitimate ad networks. The New York Times was tricked into running rogue antivirus ads in September by a scammer pretending to work for Vonage. Sometimes, the scammers simply hack into websites and use attack code to put their software on the victim's computer.

Last month, webcams sold by Office Depot contained links to a hacked website that tried to download rogue antivirus.

The IC3 says that users who see these unexpected antivirus pop-up warnings should shut down their browsers or their computers immediately and then run an antivirus scan to see what's going on.

Victims who have been hit with rogue AV can file an IC3 complaint here.

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Harry Clark said: The fake antivirus scam can only work with the complicity of the credit card online payment processing companies in doing this they are just as guilty as the scammers so it must be way past the time they were taken to task over it if you can stop the payments going to the scammers it will no longer happen